Meet One of the First Obamacare Enrollees

How a Freelance Filmmaker Snagged a Policy for $62 a Month After Subsidies

Leslie Foster, a 28-year-old freelance filmmaker in Hollywood, Calif., is among the first wave of enrollees in new insurance plans under the federal health law.
Scott Arany

By

Christopher Weaver

Updated Oct. 7, 2013 12:46 pm ET

While millions of consumers stared down error messages on the online insurance marketplaces launched this week, some did make it through to shop the slate of coverage choices under the new federal health law.

Leslie Foster,
a 28-year-old freelance filmmaker in Hollywood, is among the first to sign up for an insurance plan.

After spending several hours browsing the California insurance "exchange" late Tuesday night—when traffic was lower and the online marketplace operated more smoothly—Mr. Foster made his choice at about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

At $62 a month in direct costs to him, the plan, offered by managed-care firm
Health Net Inc.,
is "a great deal," Mr. Foster said.

Because he earns only about $20,000 a year doing freelance videography and odd jobs, Mr. Foster qualifies for federal subsidies that cut deep into the premiums for health plans available in the new marketplaces, which opened Tuesday morning.

The total monthly premium is $213.68 according to an online confirmation page Mr. Foster retained for his records. But the subsidies will cover more than $150 of those costs.

Mr. Foster's enrollment won't formally be complete until the health plan contacts him with billing information, according to the receipt. He will have to pay his first month's premium in December, he said.

Health Net said its midlevel "silver" plan that Mr. Foster chose is less expensive than comparable products offered in Los Angeles. "We would just want to say welcome to Mr. Foster and other customers," said Brad Kieffer, a spokesman.

Like other California insurers, Health Net couldn't confirm any enrollments, including Mr. Foster's. That is because insurers in the state hadn't yet received such information from the state-run marketplace, meaning it wasn't yet clear how many people had been able to sign up.

One rival insurer, Blue Shield of California, said it was aware of some prospective enrollees "anecdotally, through social media."

Since the new marketplaces launched, many of the sites, including 36 run in part by the federal government, had ground nearly to a halt in the face of Web traffic that exceeded officials' expectations. On Tuesday and Wednesday combined, the federal marketplace, healthcare.gov, saw seven million unique visits, officials said.

"Experts are working around the clock and were able to expand system capacity somewhat overnight,"
Joanne Peters,
a Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman, said Thursday.

At least some people managed to enroll through the federal marketplace, officials said. In some states that are running their own exchanges, such as California and Kentucky, more people began signing up Thursday despite delays.

Several major national insurers said Thursday they began receiving enrollees from the exchanges. Cigna Corp. said it was notified of its first enrollees Wednesday night. "I'd characterize the enrollments as a trickle rather than a wave at this early stage," said Raymond Smithberger, Cigna's general manager for individual and family plans.

WellPoint Inc. said it began receiving enrollees from the federal marketplace Thursday, but that it was too soon to say how many.

Mr. Henderson, who was introduced Thursday to reporters by a nonprofit group promoting the law, Enroll America, managed to create an account in the federal exchange and planned to enroll in a Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Georgia plan. But he didn't qualify for help from subsidies because he earns too little—only $7,000 a year—and will have to pay the full $175-per-month premium for the plan he says he will choose.

The lowest-income workers aren't eligible for subsidies because the law intended for them to join the ranks of Medicaid, at no cost. But the Supreme Court ruled last year that a planned expansion of the Medicaid program by states was optional, and Georgia along with some other Republican-led states chose not to participate. The result: The law changes little for very low-income people, while providing subsidies for slightly better-off people.

Mr. Foster, the filmmaker, already has insurance—a catastrophic plan his parents pay for and that covers only emergency care. He wasn't sure how much it cost.

When he first tried to log on to Covered California, as the state's marketplace is called, "it was a little slow," he said. But he came back later and found it easy to use.

"I'm grateful for being in California," Mr. Foster said, noting that other states and websites run by the federal government had been plagued by technical glitches. "There were definitely ahead of the ball," he said.

He compared several plans, but settled on the Health Net option because "I liked the price, I liked the website, I looked them up on Yelp and I liked what people were saying about them."

Mr. Foster, who devotes much of his time to a nonprofit film collective he runs and who campaigned for President Barack Obama's election, said he hadn't had comprehensive health insurance since 2006, when he was in college at Southern Adventist University in Chattanooga, Tenn.

One reason he cited: He generally is healthy. That makes him a prime customer for Health Net. Insurance companies are hoping to woo more young healthy people who they hope will help offset the costs of older, sicker consumers whom they may no longer exclude from coverage under the new law.

The plan he picked covers a middle-of-the-road slate of benefits. It has a $2,000 deductible and $45 co-pays for physician visits, according to Health Net's website. But it includes coverage for a wide range of services as required under the law. And additional subsidies under the law that reduce cost sharing will drive Mr. Foster's deductible down to $500 a year at his current income level, according to Health Net. Benefits under the law won't kick in until Jan. 1.

The total monthly premium is $213.68, according to Mr. Foster's online confirmation page. But because he earns only about $20,000 a year doing freelance videography and odd jobs, he qualifies for federal subsidies that will cover more than $150 of those costs.

"Thankfully, I don't have school debt, and that helps me out a bit," said Mr. Foster, noting that life on $20,000 a year in Hollywood can be a challenge. After paying rent and buying food early in the month, "I have room to play the second half of the month," he said. Some of that discretionary spending will go to Health Net, he said.

The lowest-cost plan currently available to consumers in Los Angeles, according to eHealthinsurance.com, costs $105 a month for someone Mr. Foster's age, and is also offered by HealthNet. It has a $3,500 deductible.

—Timothy W. Martin and Louise Radnofsky contributed to this article.

Corrections & Amplifications Chad Henderson had completed an application for coverage in the federally run health-insurance marketplace and planned to enroll in a specific health plan. An earlier version of this article inaccurately stated that he had enrolled in a plan.

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